following portions as being 'the law' which was to be publicly read in the Temple by the

king or the high-priest at the Feast of Tabernacles in the Sabbatical year, viz.,

Deuteronomy 1:1-6; 6:4-8; 11:13-22; 14:22; 15:23; 17:14; 26:12-19; 27; 28 (Mish. Sotah, vii.

8). This service concluded with a benediction, which resembled that of the high-priest

on the Day of Atonement, except that it referred not to the remission of sins.

The account just given proves that there was scarcely any Divine ordinance, which the

Rabbis, by their traditions, rendered more fully void, and converted into 'a yoke which

neither our fathers nor we were able to bear,' than the Sabbath law. On the other hand,

the Gospels bring before us Christ more frequently on the Sabbath than on any other

festive occasion. It seemed to be His special day for working the work of His Father. On

the Sabbath He preached in the synagogues; He taught in the Temple; He healed the

sick; He came to the joyous meal with which the Jews were wont to close the day (Luke

14:1). Yet their opposition broke out most fiercely in proportion as He exhibited the true

meaning and object of the Sabbath. Never did the antagonism between the spirit and the

letter more clearly appear. And if in their worship of the letter they crushed out the spirit

of the Sabbath law, we can scarcely wonder that they so overlaid with their ordinances

the appointment of the Sabbatical year as well-nigh to extinguish its meaning. That

evidently was, that the earth, and all that is upon it, belongeth to the Lord; that the eyes

of all wait upon Him, that He may 'give them their meat in due season' (Psa 104:27;

145:16); that the land of Israel was His special possession; that man liveth not by bread

alone, but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of the Lord; and that He

giveth us our daily bread, so that it is vain to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread

of sorrows (Psa 127:2). Beyond it all, it pointed to the fact of sin and redemption: the

whole creation which 'groaneth and travaileth in pain together unto now,' waiting for

and expecting that blessed Sabbath, when 'creation itself shall be delivered fro m the

bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God' (Rom 8:21,22).

Thus, as the Sabbath itself, so the Sabbatical year pointed forward to the 'rest which

remaineth to the people of God,' when, contest and labour completed, they sing, 'on the

other side of the flood,' the song of Moses and of the Lamb (Rev 15:3,4): 'Great and

marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King

of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only are

holy: for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made